Ice-cream and sorbet producer Granny Gothards scoops up £3 million Dubai deal for 56 different ice cream flavours.
After seeing a drop in business due the closure of restaurants and visitor attractions the export win has given the company a real uplift in production requirements just in time for the UK’s cooler Autumn months.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) is helping UK ice cream makers enter key markets overseas such as the UAE and China.
With the cooler months of Autumn fast approaching, ice cream makers across the UK are looking to hotter countries overseas to maintain sales throughout the year. Artisanal ice cream producer Granny Gothards, recently scooped a deal in Dubai for 56 different flavours which is set to make the company up to £3 million over the next 5 years.
Founded in 2012, the business has grown from making just 6 ice creams to producing over 195 flavours, each with its own unique recipe, for top chefs and high-end restaurants all over the world.
Due to lockdown, Granny Gothards’ ice cream sales saw unprecedented reductions as a result of visitor attractions and National Trust sites shutting their doors, as well as restaurants and hotels closing both here and overseas. During this time, one Tuesday evening, the Devon-based producer received a request for samples from a distributor, TACCT Global, who are based in Dubai. The next day, 25 ice cream flavours arrived for a tasting, and on Thursday morning Amanda woke to an order for two 40ft containers of the high-end product.
Granny Gothard’s Owner and Managing Director Amanda Stansfield said: “This Dubai deal has been a saving grace for us this year as we were hit really hard by the Coronavirus lockdown, with restaurants and hotels closing across the world. “The export win allowed us to bring staff off Furlough at the beginning of July and with UK ice cream sales diminishing after September it will allow us to continue churning out ice cream all year round. We are excited about the new markets we’ll be entering in the New Year, and we will continue to work with the Department for International Trade to grow our presence in the UAE and beyond.”
“We are also delighted that only last week we were acknowledged as The Best Artisan Ice Cream & Sorbet Producer in the UK, something we are going to be using in our marketing as we extend our reach across the globe.”
The new deal will see bespoke flavours such as ‘Rose water and Cardamom’, ‘Charcoal and Coconut’ and ‘Salted Honey’ available to consumers throughout the UAE, via the huge on- line retailer Kibsons International. The more unusual flavours will be packaged in biodegradable wooden pots whilst family favourites and some that you will never have thought about will be packaged in recyclable cardboard containers.
Granny Gothards has been successfully exporting its range of dairy products to the UAE since 2015, increasing profits made from exporting by 25% over the past five years. Today, exports account for 60-70% of the company’s total turnover, up from 35% before the Coronavirus.
HTMC for the Middle East Simon Penney said: “There are already about 6,000 UK businesses that are selling into the Middle East because of the ample trading opportunities that the Gulf market presents. With major events coming up in the region such as Expo 2020 Dubai and the 2021 FiFA World Cup in Qatar, there are many opportunities for UK food and drink companies to get their products in front of a global audience.”
“Granny Gothards is a great example of an innovative UK producer that is capitalising on Middle East demand for high quality British products.”
During lockdown, Granny Gothards explored new export opportunities to sustain the business and ended up creating an Ewes Milk ice cream range for online Chinese store Alibaba, which will launch in January 2021. The producer also garnered interest from a major airline as well as a retailer in the USA and are waiting for travel restrictions to ease so they can welcome the interested partners to their facility in Devon. There has also been interest in their High Protein range of products manufactured under their brand PROice, from both India and Saudi Arabia.